dark forest

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The Harpers free speech letter and controversy Tyler Cowen, MR
  2. The Religious Roots of a New Progressive Era Ross Douthat, NYT
  3. America, China, and the Dark Forest Niall Ferguson, Bloomberg
  4. Don’t confuse reality with science fiction Scott Sumner, MoneyIllusion

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The Dark Forest theory: why aliens haven’t contacted us yet Scotty Hendricks, Big Think
  2. China’s “Dark Forest” answer to Star Wars optimism Jeremy Hsu, Lovesick Cyborg
  3. On the tradition of “Chinese unity” in geopolitical thought Nick Nielsen, The View from Oregon
  4. Rice Peter Miller, Views of the Kamakura

RCH: “10 Worst Space Disasters in History”

Brandon Christensen History, Links , , , , ,

My latest at RealClearHistory:

When I think about space disasters, I am reminded of the space battle between Earth and Trisolaris in Liu Cixin’s fantastic sci-fi novel. Stay with me here. Liu Cixin’s Dark Forest novel needs to be read. In the novel, humans make contact with a nearby alien civilization, who proceed to make plans to invade earth, wipe out its human population, and re-populate it with themselves. The first battle between Earth’s space forces and the would-be invaders ends badly for Earth, as thousands of space warships are destroyed in a matter minutes by a Trisolaran probe. The novel brings up an uncomfortable theory that humans have been all-too-willing to neglect: what if the universe is a hostile, deadly place instead of a curious one?

Please, read the rest.